Tag: Eric Dowdle

Seattle In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous19 Comments

Seattle by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles (Mini Wooden Puzzle) – 250 pieces

This gorgeous little beauty has been sitting partially assembled on my board for several days. I received a care package from The Puzzle Fairy (aka Penny) on Saturday, and immediately wanted to try out this mini wooden puzzle. The pieces are so small – about the size of a dime! I started it on a tray in the bedroom, but this little guy needed better lighting so I had to transfer it to the puzzle room. Sorry about the wonky picture, didn’t realize that I cut off one of the corners until just now and I’m too tired to retake it.

Unfortunately that evening around dinner time my dad called and asked me to take him to the hospital, and that’s basically where I’ve been every day since. He was admitted on Saturday night, and we’re still there. There hasn’t been much puzzling going on, but there has been plenty of sitting around on uncomfortable hospital seating. I’m hoping that today I can maybe do a MicroPuzzle or perhaps one of my Wentworth minis.

If I hadn’t started this puzzle before we got the call I might have taken it to the hospital the first morning he had his own room, but actually I’m glad I didn’t. The fit is so loose that it needs constant readjustment whenever anything gets moved. Honestly, it’s one of the loosest fitting wooden puzzles I’ve ever done, and without my fabric covered board to help keep the pieces from moving too much it would be a giant pain in the butt!

Even with the loose fit I’m still really enjoying this – even if I only find one or two pieces at a time. The artwork is beautiful, and though I find Eric Dowdle’s images challenging to puzzle it remains an entertaining little assembly. At first I thought I was going to use the little poster that comes with it, but I found that I’d rather take my time and enjoy finding each piece on my own rather than know exactly what I was looking for and where it went. Sometimes I use a poster, but lately I’m just enjoying the puzzles however it makes sense for me on that particular day. It’s been fun!

It struck me as odd after typing up the previous paragraph that my last White Mountain puzzle had me complaining about the loose fit, and here I am saying that although this puzzle has an extremely loose fit that I’m enjoying the assembly. I have no excuses or explanations – all I can tell you is that it’s the truth.

It’s been nice to have this puzzle sitting on my board so that when I come home after spending all day at the hospital I can sit down, even if it’s only for a few moments and find a piece or two to add. Last night, I sat down, found one piece, and that was it. At least I can say I did a teeny tiny bit of puzzling yesterday; even just finding that one piece made me happy, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

*If you have a spare few moments today, send a good thought for my dad that he continues to improve and that we’ll be able to get him home from the hospital without needing any surgery. Thank you my friends. 💕

Pet Shop

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Pet Shop by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles – 300 pieces

This 300 piece puzzle was surprisingly difficult, and although the finished image looks as if it would be easy to pick out certain sections – it wasn’t! Almost every piece looked quite blue, and it went much more slowly than usual for a puzzle with only 300 pieces.

Still, it was excellent quality, and I enjoyed the challenge of it. I normally don’t have to pay as much attention to minute details in a puzzle of this size – this one was packed with animals and cages, and you had to concentrate and focus intensely – it was lots of fun!

It’s been several years since I put together a Dowdle image, and even then it was on a MasterPieces puzzle, not the Dowdle brand. I find Eric Dowdle’s artwork to make for challenging puzzles no matter the piece count; but I love his symmetry, precision, and color choices even though the images themselves aren’t easy to assemble.

My last Dowdle brand puzzle was back in 2020, and reading back through it I found I was annoyed that there was only piece shape (even though Cats Around the World was a wonderfully fun image) – thankfully this one had a nice variety of shapes and was very good quality all around. My only issue was the very shiny finish; it made assembly under my artificial lighting difficult.

My son loved this little sign, it was the first thing he noticed when he looked at the box image. That husky looks like he’s staring down whatever animal or person he’s about to go after – those blue eyes are so disconcerting!

The rabbit just hanging out and casually holding onto his carrot made me smile, there’s something just so silly about it. 🐰🥕

My regular readers know I’m not much of a cat person at all, but I loved the names on this cage – Oscar and Tartar Sauce. Who do you think is the grumpy one in the back? My guess is that’s Oscar. For some reason that grumpy face and the name Tartar Sauce just don’t seem to go together.

There was a legend on the back of the poster as well, with a detail or two about each of the species featured in the image. Some of it was new information – and you know I love educational puzzles that teach me something. Did you know that some koi fish have a lifespan of over 200 years? Amazing!

But the most interesting fact I learned was given about hamsters. Many people know that animals are diurnal (active during the day) or nocturnal (active at night), and some are cathemeral (active during both daylight and darkness). There is a fourth classification though; some animals, like hamsters, are “crepuscular” – which means they are most active during the twilight hours. Perhaps it isn’t as interesting to you as it was to me, but I found it fascinating, and did a bit of research into it. There are 534 species that are crepuscular!

Sorry, got a little off track there…back to the puzzle. Pet Shop was an entertaining, difficult, very good quality puzzle with an image packed full of fun animals to find and assemble. I enjoyed it very much. 🧩💚

Quilting Country

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Quilting Country
Quilting Country by Eric Dowdle – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

This is another thrift store puzzle that mom found for us, she got this one especially for me because she knew how much I love puzzles with quilts. I’ve had this around for probably a couple of years, and last month was when it looked like it was the right time for this puzzle. I’m glad I finally got this one done, it was lovely!

I’m still surprised at how my mind works when I’m deciding what puzzle comes next. I can purchase a puzzle new, be excited about it and look forward to putting it together, but can put it off for months or even years because it just isn’t the right time. I have to be in the right mood, but there’s no way for me to explain what constitutes the right combination of time and mood – I don’t even know! I love quilt puzzles, but for some reason it took me more than two years to get this puzzle done because the time and mood weren’t right until now. 🤷‍♀️

It’s beautiful image by Eric Dowdle and his symmetrical style makes for truly fun but challenging puzzles. The image reproduction was gorgeous, and the overall quality was very good. The offset grid cut made it a little more difficult, but it kept me engrossed and involved – keeping my mind off the stresses and frustrations of the world.

Quilting Country 1

The chicken in the mailbox made me laugh! It’s something you don’t notice when looking at the entire picture, but a closer look shows some more humor and fun.

Quilting Country 2

Love this quilt! The colors and the pattern are beautiful, but really all of the quilts are.

Quilting Country 3

If you notice there are a lot of kids eating watermelon in this image, and there are even watermelons in this quilt. Again, it’s something you don’t notice until you’re studying patterns while putting together the pieces.

I’ve always had an appreciation for quilters and their ability to combine patterns and colors in such a beautiful way. I don’t think I have the artistic chops to be able to do that, combining different fabric patterns like they do. It’s amazing to me and I wish I had that talent; I don’t, so I’ll just have to be content with assembling beautiful quilt puzzles instead. 🧩😉🧩

Quilting Country In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Quilting Country IP
Quilting Country by Eric Dowdle – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

When looking for the next puzzle to assemble, I found this little gem hiding in the back row of one of my shelves. It’s a thrift store puzzle that mom bought for us sometime last year. After assembling Quilt Blocks earlier this month, I was so pleased to find another quilt puzzle here ready for me to get going on it.

Most of the time I find that Eric Dowdle’s artwork makes for difficult puzzles, and this one is no different. It’s a bit challenging, but what else do I have to do with my time these days? A difficult assembly keeps me intensely focused on what I’m doing; and with that intense focus comes an almost meditative state where the next piece, a certain shape, or that one color is all I’m thinking about.

Jigsaw puzzles give me a welcome respite from thinking and worrying, which I seem to be doing a lot of these days. Each puzzle waiting to be assembled is hours and hours of down time for my brain – best hobby ever!

Puzzles rock! 🧩🤘

Cats Around the World

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments

Cats
Cats Around the World by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles – 500 pieces

We were sorting through some of mom’s puzzles, and my daughter said to me “here’s one with a lot of cats”. My response was “Ugh, no thanks”, but then she said it was funny, so I had to take a look at it. I’m glad I did because this is not only a funny image, but was an entertaining assembly too.

I haven’t done a Dowdle puzzle in quite a long time, when did they start using just the one piece shape? And why in the world are so many companies using only one shape? It’s really frustrating, do they think that’s what we like or want? News flash puzzle companies – we like variety in shapes even if it’s only within a ribbon or grid cut – only one piece shape is BORING to work with.

This puzzle came with a legend that names all the cats and tells where they’re from…

Cats 1

Starting at the bottom in the middle and going around clockwise…

  • Sheriff “Cat” Masterson – Dodge City, Kansas
  • Audrey Hep-PURR-n – Belgium
  • Trojan Mouse – Greece
  • Fat Cat – Wall Street, New York

Cats 2

Starting at the top left and continuing clockwise…

  • “Mew”-stafa – Egypt
  • Mr. “Meow”-gi – Japan
  • MVP (Most Valuable Pussycat) “Go Kitty Wampus!!!”
  • “Feline” Nightingale – England
  • Yassir Ara-“cat” – Saudia Arabia

Cats 3

Starting at the top left again, clockwise…

  • Guillermo del “Gato (gato is Spanish for cat) – Mexico
  • Maurice “Chat”-velier (chat [pronounced shot] is French for cat) – France
  • Bat Cat – Gotham City
  • Coot Cat – Magnum P.C. (Pussy Cat) – Hawaii, USA

Cats 4

Starting at the top in the middle and continuing clockwise…

  • Captain Cat Sparrow – England
  • Lady Lib-PURR-ty – a gift from France to the United States
  • Big Lou – known for his cat calls – New York City
  • Chaim “khah-Tool”-evsky (khah-Tool is Hebrew for Cat) – Israel

Just for clarification, the explanations of the words for cat in different languages were part of the legend, and I copied them exactly.

While I was disappointed in the lack of variety in piece shape, I still enjoyed the puzzle and especially the names and silly faces of the cats. Chaim khah-Tool-evesky makes me laugh every time I look at him, that grumpy face is hysterical! Feline Nightingale’s cranky face is pretty funny too – the ones that make me laugh made this puzzle completely worth it. Just looking at the picture of the puzzle makes me smile. 🙂